I can't believe this is still going on because while I am better than most of the people in this DUMBO (DaNang Ultimate Moron's Bowling Organization) league, I am not better than all of them and now we find ourselves in a situation where there are only 2 people left for me to defend the belt against. The guy I beat this week in a best-of-three-games competition was the one I was most fearful of, and he actually got off to a fantastic start and had me worried / relieved that I was going to lose the belt.
So the day started out with a bit of a weak turnout by our standards since the night before was St Paddy's Day and we figured that certain members of our crew were going to stay out super late and miss the bowling. Of around 25 current members, only 18 turned up, which was actually a bit more people than I was expecting.
The action was fast and furious and this was just the second week that we have had the "Championship" lane be the only lane that plays 3 games, the rest of the commoners who are not champions only get to play 2 games.
there's nothing wrong with my phone, my friends are just blurry IRL
So the day started about against "Dangerous Drew" and he has been on fire in recent weeks putting up scores that made him someone that you should definitely be afraid of. He doesn't have the upper numbers like I do, but he is a more consistent bowler in the 140-150 range than I am, despite my overall average being a few pins higher than his. Basically, for reasons I cannot explain every few weeks I forget how to bowl and nothing goes my way. That is not what happened this time though.
We both came out of the gate screaming, and seemed to match one another strike for strike, and spare for spare. I took a brief lead when he missed a pickup but then he laid down two strikes in a row and a spare in the 10th to end the first round ahead of me 158-154.
The second game would see me slip even further behind and things started to not go my way and I was missing many of my rather easy spare pickups and the second round ended with him doing worse but me doing terribly with a final score of 134-104. So this means I entered the 3rd game 34 points behind and really needed to do something special if I was going to turn this thing around.
Boy did I ever.
src
I started out by getting a strike in all of the first 3 frames of game three and my opponent only managed to pull off a single spare with a 9 pin cleanup after. By the time it was frame 4, I had made up the 34 point margin, and was now around 20 points in the lead. This also ended up getting me the "gobbler" award which is a silly doggie squeak toy that you can see in the top picture. This award changes hands frequently and yesterday it actually changed hands twice. However, I ended the day with it and it is currently sleeping next to Nadi on one of her beds.
She'll probably be a bit upset when I more than likely do NOT return with this next week since it tends to change hands at least once per event.
Things didn't get better for Dangerous Drew as game 3 went on because even though he was hitting the pins for the most part just to the left or right of the head-pin, just the way you are supposed to, he couldn't seem to catch a break. He was also failing to pick up spares afterwards and unfortunately for him, out of 10 frames only 2 of mine were left open.
In the end, he bowled one of his worst games that he has ever bowled since joining us, and I bowled one of my best. This more than easily took care of the 34 point lead he had coming into this. I'm pretty sure that everyone in the lanes who was watching us was convinced my reign of terror was finally over but in the end, I defeated my 9th opponent rather handily with an overall score of 444-393. To give you an idea of how difficult it is to break 200 I want you to keep in mind that just 2 of my frames were NOT strikes or spares and I still didn't get it. Me finishing with a turkey wouldn't have made any difference because going into the 10th frame it was already mathematically impossible for my opponent to catch up to me. The current highest score anyone in the league has ever gotten is 203. Previously I had the record with 202.
On my last ball of the day, i used a ball I had never used before because it is 2 pounds heavier than i would normally use and this negates its usefulness despite the fact that it is dead sexy.
I missed
Later on, my randomly selected tag team walked away with the tag medals with an overall score of 145. This means that 3 of the 4 available awards for the men's division are currently in my house. Only the top score medal, which was mine until last week, is not here and honestly, I am glad that is the case because I don't want to demoralize all the other bowlers.
The guy I am playing next week is 1 of only 2 remaining competitors and his bowling average is currently 1 pin higher than my own. I'll have to play with some fierce consistency to stand a chance against this guy and I am already ok with losing the belt should that happen. I thought I was going to lose this week and didn't do so, so perhaps the same thing will happen next Thursday.
If I defeat him and the following week I defeat the only other remaining competitor who honestly, I am quite a lot better than, I intend to vacate the belt because I don't want the DUMBO members to think that this league is just all about me.
Since this is actually my second time being the champion, I have had the championship for more weeks than not since the league was formed last November. I'm proud of this, but am ready to not be the champion anymore because even though the belt is made of plastic and there is no cash prize, it is a bit stressful to always be defending a championship. Sometimes I would rather just turn up and bowl. Maybe my opponent next week can finally relieve me of this burden. I'm ready to not be champion, but I'm not going to give it away!